Top Regional News: Illinois Senate OKs revised legal marijuana bill

Thursday

May 30, 2019 at 12:00 PM

The following stories are among today’s top news of central Illinois.

Illinois Senate OKs revised legal marijuana bill

SPRINGFIELD — The journey toward making Illinois the 11th state to legalize possession and sale of marijuana for people 21 and older took a big step forward Wednesday with the Senate’s 38-17 approval of House Bill 1438.

The bill was tweaked over the past 10 days to narrow the scope of convictions that would be eligible for an expedited expungement process. The changes also clarified that convictions taking place after the legislation takes effect wouldn’t be eligible for expungement. Sponsors also changed the proposal so it no longer would allow anyone to grow up to five marijuana plants per household. The bill now restricts home grows to patients in the state’s medical marijuana program.

The bill would allow adults living in Illinois to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, or about one ounce. Non-residents could possess half that amount. Under the amended expungement provisions of the bill, convictions involving possession of up to 30 grams would be potentially rescinded through gubernatorial pardons that would allow courts to erase records. Local state’s attorneys would have a say over whether people would be eligible for those expedited expungements. For convictions involving between 30 and 500 grams — which could be misdemeanors or felonies — the bill creates a clearer process for state’s attorneys or individuals to petition courts to reverse a conviction. If convictions are reversed, individuals can ask for records of those convictions to be destroyed.

The legislation now moves to the House.

Check pjstar.com for more on this story.

FOID card changes approved by Illinois House

SPRINGFIELD — Gun owners would be fingerprinted and have to pay more for firearm owner identification cards under legislation approved by the Illinois House on Wednesday, as Senate Bill 1966 was approved on a vote of 62-52.

Under the bill, FOID cards will cost $20 and be valid for five years. Currently, cards cost $10 and are good for 10 years, something that hasn’t changed since the card was created in 1968. Of the new fee, $15 would go to the State Police Firearms Service Fund and $5 to the State Police Revocation Fund, which finances efforts to remove guns from people who should no longer have them. The bill also requires applicants for FOID cards to be fingerprinted. The bill caps the cost of fingerprints at $30, but opponents said the service costs more than that. They also said people in some areas of the state will have to travel long distances to be fingerprinted.

The bill must go back to the Senate for its approval.

Check pjstar.com for more on this story.

11 arrested on felony drug charges at Summer Camp festival

CHILLICOTHE — Officers made 11 felony drug arrests at the Summer Camp Music Festival over the holiday weekend.

Agents with the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group also seized about $5,500 in currency and amounts of cannabis, cocaine, Ecstasy, ketamine, LSD and psilocybin mushrooms at the festival, according to a news release from PMEG director Dave Briggs. Of those 11 arrests, Briggs said, nine of them were due to “hand to hand buys,” which is up from last year when the covert drug group nabbed four people due to hand to hand sales.

Chillicothe police Chief Scott Mettille said his department arrested 21 people for all types of offenses, including warrants, drugs, battery and other things. He said the festival proceeded about as normally as it could have. That’s down from 29 people arrested last year.

Check pekintimes.com for more on this story.

Flash flooding drenches Galesburg

GALESBURG — Flash flooding occurred throughout Knox and Warren counties Tuesday night into Wednesday morning after yet another set of storms rolled through the area.

National Weather Service meteorologists in the Lincoln and Quad Cities offices said Wednesday morning that Galesburg had 2.55 inches of rain while Altona saw 2.41 inches and Alexis had 2.9 inches. Brian Pierce, of the Quad Cities office, said rain totals were close to 3 inches in northeastern Warren County from Tuesday night’s storm while southern Warren County, such as Roseville, probably saw about 1.5 inches. He did say power poles were reported down in Roseville Tuesday night. Ben Deubelbeiss, of the Lincoln office, said there was a reported wind gust of 70 mph near Abingdon Tuesday night. Neither meteorologist knew of hail falling in either Knox or Warren counties Tuesday night.

Both areas experienced flash flooding with the heavy rains in a short window Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Check galesburg.com for more on this story.

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